The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained 19 train cars full of metal scrap from the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's republic (DPR) at the Kostyantynivka checkpoint.
The SBU said on its website that it was the separatists' first attempt to bring in ferrous metal scrap.
"Law enforcers have learnt that the DPR chieftains, seeking to finance illegal paramilitary groups, were planning to arrange for an illegal delivery of metal scrap from the pseudo-republic. Through commercial institutions under their control, which are authorized to carry goods across the line of contact, they transported their products to a territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities to sell them there," the statement reads.
The stopped metal scrap costs around 6m hryvnyas (0.22m dollars).
Criminal proceedings were launched over financing of terrorism.